German Car Zone

Just amazing. The difference with that Audi is huge

Yeah, I reckon! Another litre of displacement and another turbo!

Show me a diagram over Audi RS6.!.!

Yeah I know but the difference remains big

Ok, fair enough then!

I'll say that BMW do know how to make good engines, but I still don't think this is anything so innovative as much as the result of good choices in engineering.

Regardless, 400 Nm at 1300 rpm is something I do not see often...

much less a constant 400NM between 1300 and 5000 rpm,

Maybe, if you haven't seen many large displacement forced induction engines before..?

Let's see some numbers. Keep in mind that AFAIK power is not really relevant here, since it's a derivative of the torque and the engine revolutions at which a certain amount of torque is produced at.

From the first page, the original engine was making 315Nm/2750rpm in naturally aspirated form anyway. So they added two turbos and got 400Nm/1300-5000rpm - another 85Nm? That's.. approx. 27% of 315Nm.

On the other hand, with 300Nm/2200-4000rpm, VAG/Audi got another 100Nm from the A4 DTM version over the 200Nm/3500rpm of the normal 2.0FSI engine. 100Nm is 50% of 200Nm. That's a significantly higher proportional increase in the torque produced.

For another example - the 'normal' 2.0T FSI of the Golf GTI, Jetta, etc. produces (from Jetta brochure) 280Nm/1800-5000rpm, which is already a 40% increase over the 2.0 FSI. It's also a significant increase, but over a much broader range - almost the same as BMW's engine, and with a significantly higher proportional increase in torque.

Do you think I'm out to get BMW?

Here's a few other figures (from Supercars.net), though I regret that I don't have power diagrams to help. I must say that I am doubtful that all of these forced induction engines produce torque at a peak, I expect they have just neglected to include one of the numbers that would produce a plateau. Nevertheless:

• 1993 Toyota Supra Turbo (incidentally a Inline-6 twin turbo long before BMW's) - 2997cc twin turbo Inline-6, 4v DOHC, 238kW/5800rpm (must be North American figure or something, equates to more than the 'official' 280PS); 427Nm/4000rpm (yes, it's much less useful without a power diagram)
• 1993 Toyota Supra N/A - 2997cc Inline-6, 4v DOHC, 165kW/6000rpm; 285Nm/4800rpm (info from a different site)
• 1998 Maserati 3200GT - 3217cc twin turbo V8, 4v DOHC, 271kW/6250rpm; 491Nm/4500rpm
• 2001 Mercedes Benz SLK32 AMG - 3199cc supercharged V6, 3v SOHC, 264kW/6100rpm; 450Nm/4400rpm
• 2002 Audi RS6 - 4172cc twin turbo V8, 5v DOHC, 450kW/5700-6400rpm; 560Nm/1950-5600rpm (since you asked, not as good as a power diagram though)

It isn't to boast about how good these numbers are, nor compare their performances as cars or engines directly, either. Of course, the Maserati is a V8 of 200cc more, the Benz has 200cc, the Audi is just there because you asked.

On the other hand, the Toyota produces more torque and did it many years ago, surely without some of the technology they have now such as variable vane turbos, direct injection, etc. It also produced a greater proportional increase of torque over its N/A version - (427Nm - 285Nm) / 285Nm = ~49.8%.

I am just saying all this with regards to the idea that BMW is somehow doing something that's never been done before. If any of these other enginemakers had decided to only have a 27% proportional increase in torque, I am confident that they could also do it from 1300-5000rpm.

Plus, something to add - I once again reaffirm my notion that BMW is holding back so as not to shame the forthcoming M3.